NEW YORK RED BULLS

Red Bulls Academy U-18 midfielder Richmond McCarthy (right) and his teammates trained with Argentine and Barcelona star Lionel Messi on Wednesday. Argentina takes on the U.S. National Team at the New Meadowlands Stadium on Saturday.
Ernesto Motta/RBNY photo

HARRISON, N.J. – Just call it a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The Red Bulls Academy Under-18 team got an opportunity to do something Wednesday that just about every soccer-loving teenager in the world would die for -- train with Barcelona standout Lionel Messi and the Argentine National Team.

The U-18 team trained with Messi and company at the Timex Performance Center in East Rutherford, N.J. on Wednesday morning. The young Red Bulls participated in small-sided games and possession drills.

Argentina will meet the U.S. in an international friendly at the New Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford at 7 p.m. Saturday.

“It is a dream come true for many of our players to train with a team of this caliber," Red Bulls director of youth programs Bob Montgomery said.

Indeed it was.

“You see it on TV and you see how they do it and they make it look easy,” Red Bulls U-18 Academy player Sean Davis was quoted on www.NewYorkRedBulls.com. “And then, you play against them and it’s just incredible how fast they move, how simple they keep it and how they just can dominate us so easily. It’s definitely something that we talk about now and we’re going to build off of and try to replicate what they do.”